Bl. Thompson et al., Assessment of health risk behaviors - A tool to inform consumers, providers, health care organizations, and purchasers, AM J PREV M, 16(1), 1999, pp. 48-59
Introduction: Tobacco use, diet and physical activity patterns, and alcohol
use are the leading causes of death in the United States. To make major im
provements in the health statics of die population, behavioral risk factors
for disease must be addressed.
Methods: We propose a brief sun ey of behavioral risk factors for enrollees
of health care organizations, employer groups, or other adult populations
that can be used to profile the health risk behaviors of a population, asse
ss performance of prevention and risk reduction programs, or make compariso
ns with other populations. The survey contains questions about tobacco, die
t, physical activity, alcohol, firearms, motor vehicle safety, sexual behav
ior, and drugs.
Results: Recommendations for sun ey items, implementation, and calculation
of performance measures are given.
Conclusions: Widespread adoption of this type of survey would be a major st
ep forward in acknowledging the impact that behavior has on health and in f
urthering individual and organizational accountability for improving health
risk behaviors.